Three figures in probes of alleged campaign money laundering, including two relatives of former Los Angeles City Councilman Arthur K. Snyder, filed suit Thursday to disqualify the city Ethics Commission executive director from participating in proceedings involving them. The Superior Court lawsuit claims that the commission's top executive, Benjamin Bycel, has shown a lack of impartiality and should be blocked from presiding over an upcoming private hearing related to pending investigations.

The University of West Los Angeles has selected Benjamin Bycel to be its new president beginning Tuesday. A former dean at the Santa Barbara-Ventura Law School, Bycel, 55, has been in private practice, specializing in legal ethics and malpractice. He is the founding executive director of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission and has also taught ethics courses at Loyola Law School and USC.

The Los Angeles Ethics Commission on Friday agreed to a consulting contract worth six months salary for Benjamin Bycel, the founding executive director who was abruptly ousted by a divided commission last month. Bycel will be paid almost $52,000 in exchange for dropping plans to file a defamation of character lawsuit over his controversial dismissal. He will also be available to advise the commission staff, which he recruited when the agency was launched almost five years ago.

The Los Angeles Ethics Commission on Friday agreed to a consulting contract worth six months salary for Benjamin Bycel, the founding executive director who was abruptly ousted by a divided commission last month. Bycel will be paid almost $52,000 in exchange for dropping plans to file a defamation of character lawsuit over his controversial dismissal. He will also be available to advise the commission staff, which he recruited when the agency was launched almost five years ago.

The city's Ethics Commission discussed the status of its executive director, Benjamin Bycel, for nearly an hour Friday behind closed doors, and then its new president, Raquelle de la Rocha, issued a terse statement saying the commission had taken no action, leaving him in the job he has held nearly five years. But that may be only for now. De la Rocha would not say whether Bycel's future will be taken up again when the commission meets in two weeks.

Benjamin Bycel, the executive director of the city's Ethics Commission since its inception in 1991, says he is struggling to save his job after being told by Mayor Richard Riordan's new appointee as commission president, UCLA law professor Raquelle de la Rocha, that she has decided he should be fired.

The University of West Los Angeles has selected Benjamin Bycel to be its new president beginning Tuesday. A former dean at the Santa Barbara-Ventura Law School, Bycel, 55, has been in private practice, specializing in legal ethics and malpractice. He is the founding executive director of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission and has also taught ethics courses at Loyola Law School and USC.

I have read your editorial ("The City Council That Ate an Ethics Code," July 1) and I could not agree more with your position that the present Los Angeles ethics ordinance is poorly drafted, "so complex that almost no one can figure (it) out" and "virtually impossible to understand or enforce." I agree with the commission that another ordinance is needed to fix the present unconstitutional one. Prior to filing my lawsuit, I made a number of attempts to discuss these matters with Benjamin Bycel, director of the commission.

Benjamin Bycel, the newly appointed executive officer of the city's nascent Ethics Commission, said Friday that he "won't conduct any witch hunts" while enforcing a tough new set of regulations governing the conduct of city officials. "I feel like the commissioner of baseball," he said. "My goal isn't to destroy or disrupt. It's to make sure that the game is played by the rules."

The Los Angeles Ethics Commission on Friday picked its highest-ranking deputy to lead the city's anti-corruption agency while seeking a permanent replacement for Benjamin Bycel, the founding executive director fired last month. Deputy Director Rebecca Avila, 34, was the unanimous choice of commissioners during a closed-door session that also included discussion of "anticipated litigation" over Bycel's abrupt and controversial dismissal on Oct. 20.

The Los Angeles Ethics Commission on Friday picked its highest-ranking deputy to lead the city's anti-corruption agency while seeking a permanent replacement for Benjamin Bycel, the founding executive director fired last month. Deputy Director Rebecca Avila, 34, was the unanimous choice of commissioners during a closed-door session that also included discussion of "anticipated litigation" over Bycel's abrupt and controversial dismissal on Oct. 20.

The Los Angeles City Council is going to let stand the Ethics Commission's recent firing of founding Executive Director Benjamin Bycel, City Hall sources confirmed Tuesday. But no one expects the council's apparent unwillingness to exercise its power to overturn the firing to put an end to the 2-week-old controversy. More debate over the 3-1 vote to fire Bycel--taken without explanation during a closed-door commission session Oct.

The city's Ethics Commission discussed the status of its executive director, Benjamin Bycel, for nearly an hour Friday behind closed doors, and then its new president, Raquelle de la Rocha, issued a terse statement saying the commission had taken no action, leaving him in the job he has held nearly five years. But that may be only for now. De la Rocha would not say whether Bycel's future will be taken up again when the commission meets in two weeks.

Benjamin Bycel, the executive director of the city's Ethics Commission since its inception in 1991, says he is struggling to save his job after being told by Mayor Richard Riordan's new appointee as commission president, UCLA law professor Raquelle de la Rocha, that she has decided he should be fired.

The head of the state agency that investigates political corruption has accused his counterpart at the Los Angeles Ethics Commission of a series of ethical lapses--problems so severe that he said he has cut off interaction between the two agencies.

In a setback for one of a series of local campaign money-laundering investigations, a Superior Court judge on Friday barred Los Angeles Ethics Commission Executive Director Ben Bycel from participating in a pending case, saying he had shown a bias toward the subjects of the probe.

The Los Angeles City Council is going to let stand the Ethics Commission's recent firing of founding Executive Director Benjamin Bycel, City Hall sources confirmed Tuesday. But no one expects the council's apparent unwillingness to exercise its power to overturn the firing to put an end to the 2-week-old controversy. More debate over the 3-1 vote to fire Bycel--taken without explanation during a closed-door commission session Oct.

The disdain felt in City Hall toward the city Ethics Commission is reflected by the shabbiness of the fledgling agency's offices. The commission is tucked away on the 12th floor of City Hall East, far in the back of a section of the city administrative office. The commission shares a receptionist with the office staff. Sometimes, nobody answers the phone. Executive Director Benjamin Bycel's office is far down the hall.

Three figures in probes of alleged campaign money laundering, including two relatives of former Los Angeles City Councilman Arthur K. Snyder, filed suit Thursday to disqualify the city Ethics Commission executive director from participating in proceedings involving them. The Superior Court lawsuit claims that the commission's top executive, Benjamin Bycel, has shown a lack of impartiality and should be blocked from presiding over an upcoming private hearing related to pending investigations.

January 24, 1993 | Steve Proffitt, Steve Proffitt is a producer for Fox News and a contributor to
National Public Radio. He interviewed Benjamin Bycel at the ethics director's home in West Los Angeles.

On April 20, Los Angeles voters will cast their ballots in the first city election to feature public matching funds for political campaigns. New limits on campaign contributions will also be in force. Both changes are part of a broad campaign-reform package instituted in 1990, when voters approved Charter Amendment H.